The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-19
BoNNHTs AND BONNET BUILDERS.
A Topic That is Dear to the Average
WOman'S Heart

Woman's Heart
New YORK, Sept. l7.-"Do you know
who wears the best bonnet in New York;
''Mrs. Willie Aston, perhaps, or Mrs
Burke-Rocher'
They know good bonnet when they see
it and so does Mrs Frederick Jones, but for
an infallible judge of headgear commend
me to Mrs. MARSHALL Roberts. She never
makes a mistake; her bonnets are gems.
She buys from thirty to forty every year,
and her milliner's bill runs well up into the
| thousands. "
This scrap of conversation took place in
my presence at a private exhibition of
Partisan models" in the parlor OF a high
! priced uptown establishment. Miss Adele
Grant Is more beautiful IN bonnet than
without one" the first speaker went on,
because she understands perfectly just
what tints and shapes will make charming
| setting for her charming face. That is
| where she gets an advantage over the BoS-
ton beauty, for Mrs. Winslow persists in
wearing cold colors that do not warm up
her skin. Mrs. Coleman Drayton is always
well bonneted. Mrs Edith Kingdom Gould
| has spent an immense amount of money on
bonnets the past year, Dora Wheeler, the
artist, designs great many of her own bon
nets, and they couldn't well be improved on.
Mrs Glider, wife of r. W. Glider, of the
| Century, has exquisite taste in bonnets and
| Mrs. Helm, Helen Dauvray's sister, is q con-
noisseur in that line. A bonnet is work
of art nowadays 1t takes an artist to de-
/ sign it and an artist to choose it for you. Yet
millinery as whole is better now than it
| ever was before"
| There are 10000 miliners in New York
| and Brooklyn; about one bonnet builder to
every fifty adult women. Ten years ago an
artistic mil)iner was something of q rare
| bird. To-day it is safe to say the best New
| York milliners are hardly excelled in the
world The imported bonnet is still looked
upon by society women as the model of
what a bonnet ought to he, but in spite of
the continuous growth of wealth and dress
expenditure, imported bOnnet' have appre-
ciably diminished in number in the past five
years.
Your bonnet is in the custom house,
Mrs. Browne; it came by La Champagne,
| but the steamer was late in getting in and
those officials are SO tiresome that don't
expect to see my goods before this time to-
morrow. So sorry TO disappoint you"
| Mrs. Browne looked vexed as well as dis
| appointed. Isn't that too dreadful?
| had my plans all made to start for Lenox
tonight, but there's no use going without
that carriage bonnet from Virot. Do send
it round the instant it comes in
AT this point, in an actual discussion not
many days since, Theophile, the little French
|
| from the penetraia of the work rooms, came
to the rescue of both parties with the zeal of
an enfant terrible. 'They are trying it on,
Maman," was what he said 'Estelle has
| it just finis.n
| Less than an hour later, in a fashionable
millinery show room, | noticed blonde
beauty enjoying unalloyed bliss in the con-
temptation of a dainty thing i'll blue and
| gold. You don't need to tell me- Madame
| mil
that this is French. There is nobody in
America who could have given such droop
| to that feather"
The milliner said nothing and the brown
eyed girl who had arranged the droop of
that feather and great many other equally
| important feathers stood at my side and
smiled
So much is expected of bonnet nova
| days that q competent bonnet maker has
| trade requiring not skilled labor merely,
| but artistic capabilities. and, for no small
| number of craftswomen, an apprenticeship
| longer and more severe than the average
| doctor or lawyer undergoes IN the profess
sional schools. Millinery, indeed, has grown
| into u profession, q difficult profession. but
one which, when mastered thoroughly, pays
a woman better than almost any wage earn
| ing pursuit she can enter.
| To become a first-claSs workwoman re-
quires from six to seven years time. Ac-
| cording to the figures given me by the head
| of the largest establishment in New York,
| it is worth from $l8 to $50 week for medi-
| OGRE to good hands, $50 to SIS, or even high
er figures for trimmers and designers of ex-
| ceptional talent.
spent an hour yesterday in a millinery
workroom where some sixty women are
employed, and watched the evolution of a
round hat. The raw material of het is its
frame, and this went first through the hands
of the chief designer.
This is a French model" she said, ''and
altogether too low-crowned and fiat-rimmed.
French fashions jump from one extreme to
| another; last season hats were high, this sea-
| son they must be low That is Partisan
doctrine, but in modifying it for American
tastes one must shade off a little more gradu-
ally" A few touches of the scissors and
manipulations with the fingers gave the
inchoate hat a more jaunty and tip-tilted
look, and then it went to a miss in her teens
| with long yellow braids of hair vino sat by
herself at a window.
81 sew wires about the brims of hats and
| straw bonnets, she told me. have been here
eight months and they are just beginning to
let me put in silk Innings" shipping some
lengths of brown silk for the purpose The
hat, whose fate was watching, went from
her hands to those of pretty girl somewhat
older and with nearly two years experience
who faced it daintily with velvet. 1t was
| then passed to a milliner proper as the word
| is used in a somewhat restricted technical
sense, who prepared it for the trimmer The
milliner put a band of pheasaatss plumage
about the rim and covered the crown with
a glossy plush, blending shades of brown,
bronze and olive to match the feathers The
milliner was piquant brunette She had
been at work nearly four years and aspired
shortly to become a trimmer This i'm
! portant parsonage, who keeps about four
milliners busy supplying her with material,
received the hat last OF all, mounted it on
the ends of her fingers, gazed at it reflect
lively minute, and then proceeded to con-
coct bow which she planted in exactly the
right place on the front and pronounced it
| done.
lhe little apprentice girl who sews wires
doesn't earn above 50 or So week. The
older girl, who can be trusted to cut velvets
and plushes for facings, is paid anywhere
from 81 to $40. The miliner, who is often
"a woman who hoped 10 be a trimmer. but
never develops ability enough for that grade
of the profession, does nothing but put the
outer cover of lace or beads or plush upon
a bonnet, and is paid from $40 to Si4. A
trimmer has 10 have inventive gifts and be
something Of a designer. IL she Eas genius
! i'll this line she can name her own wages
"Ihis is Mrs. Hicks-Lord," said my guide,
performing the introduction to quiet girl
| who was grouping some fiy-a- way fertilizers